Lazy Bill, A Volunteer of Rest
Words by Glen Mac Donough
Music by A.B. Sloane
Published 1898

Lazy Bill he wouldn't do a thing.
Except to loaf the day away, to whistle and to sing
All the time from morning night till noon.
He used to sort er rest around and toot the same old tune.
But one day the village up an riz,
Then says to Bill you'll have to git and go about your biz.
Nary a word says Bill but out he goes,
Me and 'ring down the village street, a humming thro' his nose.

Lazy Bill had nothing else to do,
He drifted down to Cuba ways, in army brass and blue,
All alone he fit a gattlin' gun,
An when the Spaniards made for him he was too tired to run.
Lazy Bill, he couldn't lose the name,
The durned old tune he whistled was tarnally the same.
When the boys went up the San Juan hill,
They licked the Spaniards to the tune they'd learned from Lazy Bill

Lazy Bill of bullets got his share,
One wandered clean around his head, and tried to cut his hair,
In his leg another stopped to stay.
That's why as long as he's alive, he'll always walk this way.
Lazy Bill came limping home again,
And all the folks that turned him out,turned out to see him in.
Jumpin' Josh it would give a mammy chills.
To hear the way the village band blew out that tune of Bill's